Vladimir Putin Warns Russia May Strike Kyiv With New Ballistic Missiles

(Bloomberg) -- President Vladimir Putin warned that his forces could strike “decision-making centers” in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with new ballistic missiles as retaliation for attacks on Russia using Western missiles.

“The Defense Ministry and the General Staff are selecting targets to hit on Ukrainian territory,” Putin said during a regional security meeting in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on Thursday. “These could be military facilities, defense industry enterprises or decision-making centers in Kyiv.”

Russia has said it will strike back for recent Ukrainian attacks using US-supplied ATACMS and UK-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles as the nearly three-year war on Ukraine continues to escalate.

The US last week allowed Kyiv to strike Russian territory with weapons supplied by Washington for the first time since the start of Moscow's invasion in February 2022.

Russia in response launched an experimental intermediate-range ballistic missile that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Putin later said his forces may fire the new missile in combat again.

The decisions by London and Washington to allow the strikes, which Kyiv had long requested, came in response to the Kremlin deploying North Korean troops to fight against Ukraine, according to officials from both governments.

Putin last week also lowered the threshold for using Russia's arsenal of atomic weapons, including to allow a nuclear response to a “massive” conventional attack.

On Thursday morning, Russian forces attacked energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine for the 11th time this year, according to the country's power grid operator, prompting emergency electricity cuts across the country, including in Kyiv. It was Moscow's second large-scale barrage using both drones and missiles this month.

The Russian president said Oreshnik, the ballistic missile that Russia fired at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, could replicate the force of a nuclear bomb if used in massive quantities. He said the Kremlin had several missiles of this type in its arsenal.

“We will respond to the ongoing strikes on Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, including by possibly continuing to test the Oreshnik in combat conditions,” Putin said.